Returning to his parents’ homeland as Russian troops occupy the Crimean peninsula, Roman Cybriwsky said his fellow Ukrainians are "determined, confident, strong and together.’’

Responding to emailed questions, Cybriwsky said President Vladimir Putin "wants to return Russia to (an) empire and former glory. Ukraine is the most critical piece and he won’t let it go.’

"(Ukrainians) fear what Russia might do next because Putin is brazen and seems to be going off the deep end,’’ said Cybriwsky, a professor of Urban Geography at Temple University in Philadelphia who’s writing a book on Kiev. "… (Putin) needs to defeat Ukraine or else he will face similar mass movements in his own country.’’

He is the older brother of Zenon Cybriwsky of Marlborough, who provided his email address.

Roman Cybriwsky wrote he’d returned to the Ukraine because "I need to see with my own eyes and feel the atmosphere. (I need to) ask questions of people I can trust.’’

Asked if he had a message for Americans and President Barack Obama, he answered, "Support the Ukraine, never trust Putin (and) don’t do anything that would make it look like the Ukraine is in U.S. hands.’’

He charged the government of ousted President Viktor Yanukovych was "not only enormously corrupt and cowardly (but) from the beginning, a Putin device for weakening Ukraine.

"This is Ukraine’s battle for the ages. The people won’t quit. If Russia goes all out to retake the country, it will become a quagmire of epic proportions. Russians will ask why they are fighting Ukrainians since Ukrainians and Russians are ‘cousins.’ Putin will have a nightmare at home,’’ wrote Roman Cybriwsky.

Watching news reports, Zenon Cybriwsky worries about Roman.

Like several other Ukrainians across the region, the Marlborough resident fears Putin has launched a reckless gamble to preserve access to Black Sea ports and defuse popular calls for non-interference from Russia.

"Russian leaders really don’t understand the human need to express your own opinion,’’ said the retired systems engineer. "They think everyone needs to be guided. To them, the concept of protest seems an extreme threat.’’

While born, like his wife, in the U.S., Cybriwsky’s "strong sense of national identity’’ was shaped by the experiences of their parents, who immigrated after World War II to escape persecution as free-thinking scholars from Russians who still exerted influence in the resource-rich country.

During visits in 2008 with his children and 2011, he met many younger Ukrainians, especially in the western regions, who wanted stronger ties with Europe while criticizing systemic corruption in the government of President Yanukovych, whom he called "a Russian stooge.’’

As the situation grew more volatile after Crimea’s pro-Russia parliament approved a referendum whether to secede, Cybriwsky said he supports economic sanctions aimed at Russians who might exert influence on Putin.

Page 2 of 3 - The son of Ukrainian refugees, Igor Kowal considers the presence of an estimated 20,000 Russian troops in the Crimean peninsula "a continuation of old Soviet traditions.’’

The Concord businessman who worked 11 years in Ukraine between 1993 and 2005 recalled prior Soviet invasions in Hungary and Czechoslovakia when military force was used to crush popular uprisings.

"We’re seeing another illegal incursion into the independent state of the Ukraine,’’ said Kowal. "It’s the same paternalistic approach. Russia doesn’t seem to have changed.’’

While more than 60 percent of Crimea’s population speak Russian and are believed to have Russian sympathies, Kowal believes Putin was driven by "strategic interests’’ in protecting access to the Mediterranean and offshore oil deposits because Russia’s oil reserves in Siberia are hard to each.

Citing Crimea’s autonomous status, he doesn’t expect Putin "to withdraw his forces anytime soon’’ from fear former Soviet states like Belarus would see that as a sign of weakness.

Kowal believes President Obama has "more political will’’ to lead the call for sanctions because Germany and England depend on Russian oil and trade.

"I think Obama should enforce sanctions, freeze their bank assets and refuse visas,’’ he said. "But Putin’s ex-KGB are tough. We might see the continuation of Russian power. The West will rumble a bit but it’s going to be business as usual."

A professor of history and director of the college’s Russian Area Studies Program, she cautioned that misleading "historical analogies’’ comparing Putin’s recent moves to Hitler’s 1938 occupation of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland only confuse an already complex situation.

Tumarkin stressed the large numbers of ethnic Russians living in Crimea provide the Russian Federation with "no legitimate or legal basis’’ for its actions.

Instead, she thinks the American policymakers should recognize the harsh geopolitical realities driving Putin’s actions.

Tumarkin said Putin has been trying to counter the attraction of European Union membership to former Soviet states by proposing a Eurasian Economic Union that would continue Russia’s influence in a vital region undergoing vast changes.

The loss of the Ukraine, which presently relies heavily on Russian energy, would be "a huge blow,’’ she said.

Tumarkin believes Obama should work "in concert’’ with members of the European Union to defuse the crisis and recommends German chancellor Angela Merkel "take the lead’’ because she’s been a strong voice for democracy in a country with major economic ties to Russia.

"Putin will not back down. Very likely, America will have to accept Crimea in Russian hands but not necessairly incorporated into Russia,’’ she said. "Americans should stop blaming other Americans and look what we can do with our European allies to stabilize the situation. It’s not in Russia’s interest to have an unstable Ukraine.’’

Page 3 of 3 - When she Skyped her sister Victoria in Kiev last month, Iryna Warvariv-Priester could hear the sounds of street fighting as Ukrainians protested Yanukovych’s corrupt regime.

"Tensions are high. One volatile move could set things off. There’s so much to lose,’’ said the Wayland resident.

Warvariv-Priester believes Putin’s authoritarian approach makes him fearful "if Ukrainians get away with protest, maybe the people in his own country will try.’’

She believes Obama’s reaction "has been appropriate’’ and heard from her sister that Ukrainians were moved when Secretary of State John Kerry placed flowers on a memorial for slain protesters in addition to offering $1 billion in aid.

An attorney who teaches philanthropy, Warvariv-Priester said the "swift reaction and swift condemnation’’ around the world of Russian actions made her "highly optimistic."

She urged American and European diplomats to leave Putin "a face-saving way out’’ of the crisis that won’t push him toward violent escalation.

"I pray it will not get to that level. Ukrainians are looking for freedom and independence,’’ she said. "With the wrong move, it could be a lose-lose for everybody. These are delicate days, weeks and months ahead.’’

Chris Bergeron is a Daily News staff writer. Contact him at cbergeron@wickedlocal.com or 508-626-4448. Follow us on Twitter @WickedLocalArts and on Facebook.